NYCHA tenants, like some of those in the Castle Hill Houses in the southeast Bronx, remain frustrated by mold conditions.

'HAVE TO KEEP CLEANING’

Akim Ahmed said his family’s allergies and battles with fatigue have grown along with the mold in their apartment in the Clinton Houses in East Harlem.

The problem, he said, started in the bathroom and has spread into the halls.

“There’s no avoiding it — you just have to keep cleaning it,” said Ahmed, 25, who is a cashier at his uncle’s store and hopes to start college. He cleans the mold with bleach and ammonia, but is worried the chemicals might be harmful.

“Mold is dangerous, and people know this,” Ahmed said. “And I’m aware of it. So to be told I have to live with it and take care of it myself is pretty annoying.”

Akim Ahmed of the Clinton Houses in East Harlem.

‘SLOWLY CREEPING BACK’

Edward Franco was pleased when a NYCHA crew came to his apartment in the Red Hook West Houses in Brooklyn to rid his bathroom of mold.

“They did come and remove it,” said Franco, 59, who has lived in the Brooklyn housing development since 1990. “They sent a team over there, they scrubbed everything down. They did everything.”

But not long after, Franco began experiencing a feeling of déjà vu that turned out to be all too real.

“Now it’s slowly creeping back,” he said. “Slowly, but surely.”

And it’s spreading to his bedroom.

“I just find it hard to breathe sometimes,” Franco said.

Edward Franco of the Red Hook West Houses in Brooklyn.

DAUGHTER PAYS A PRICE

Speech therapists used to come to Javonne Carl’s apartment in the Smith Houses to work with her 8-year-old daughter, Janae, who has special needs.

“They don’t come (now) because of the mold,” said Carl, 41.

But she gets other visitors, thanks to sewage backups that she believes helps the spread of mold: “Maggots, roaches, mosquito infestation.”

Carl said she’s joined an ongoing lawsuit to force NYCHA to fix plumbing problems at the 61-year-old Lower Manhattan development, named for Alfred E. Smith, the former New York governor and first Catholic presidential candidate.

“The plumbing,” she said, “is awful.”

Javonne Carl of the Smith Houses in Lower Manhattan.

UNFINISHED JOB, PROBLEMS BREATHING

When a hot water leak from the apartment above turned her bathroom walls and ceiling black from mold, Sandra Rosado complained for nearly two years before NYCHA came to fix it.

In May, plumbers broke open her bathroom walls and stopped the leak. But so far, they haven’t returned to close up the walls, said Rosado, 51, who’s lived in the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx since she was 6.

Now, Rosado said, spiders, mice and roaches crawl out from the gaping holes.

“Every day I take a shower I have . . . plaster, cement falling on my head,” she said. “I’ve never had problems breathing until now. Now I can’t walk two blocks. I have to stop.”

A neighbor taped up the holes to keep the critters and debris at bay. On Nov. 25, NYCHA workers came to “inspect” the damage, but didn’t make any repairs, she said.

Her next appointment isn’t until March.

Sandra Rosado of the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx.

BATHROOM NIGHTMARE

Richard Rodriguez, 41, who’s paralyzed from the waist down, has lived in the Andrew Jackson Houses in the South Bronx for 10 years. All that time, he’s dealt with mold.

“If you were to see my bathroom, you would tell me I have to move out,” he said.

The fungus blackens his kitchen cabinets, his bedroom and his hallway. But the bathroom is his biggest nightmare.

After every shower, Rodriguez’ asthmatic 21-year-old daughter, Jennifer, rushes to her nebulizer. The mold aggravates her condition so much that she only spends two days a week at home.

The rest of the time she crashes on an aunt’s pullout couch in East Harlem.

Rodriguez estimates that he’s filed nearly 20 complaints with NYCHA about the mold over the past decade. Agency workers have painted over the mold a handful of times, he said, but it invariably returns within two months.

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” Rodriguez said.

Is your NYCHA apartment overrun with mold? Tell us your story. Leave a message at (347) 979-3146, email stopthemoldny@gmail.com or text MOLD to 646-760-3800. For more information on getting involved, go to www.stopthemoldny.com.

This story was reported in conjunction with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s NYCity News Service as part of theStop the Mold project, funded in part by the first Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education. Contributors include Allegra Abramo, Natalie Abruzzo, Julia Alsop, Frank Green, Gwynne Hogan, Ross Keith, Roxanne Scott, Melisa Stumpf and Maria Villasenor.